Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When my company decided to spring for new laptops for engineers, I jumped at the opportunity to try something a little different. I'm a huge fan of Toshiba laptops in general (more reliable than a Dell, less expensive/pretentious than an IBM) and the 'think in ink' feature set of this baby seemed like a great meeting accessory.
Now, with three months invested, I like it for a totally different set of reasons than why I bought it.
First: It's tiny. And light. One of my new favorite past times is putting it in "tablet" mode, hooking into my apartment WiFi, and browsing Amazon and web comics. It's no paperback novel, but for a few hours of web browsing, it's great. I also use it folded up with a USB bar code scanner for scanning serial numbers on my current project.
Second: It's got a real battery! I think I was unfairly trained to the 30-minute lifespan of my previous (first Clinton-term era) laptop, but this baby gets every minute of the 3.5 hours advertised. The power saving tools are infinitely customizable and never intrusive.
Third: Limited peripherals will set you free. I don't think it's really designed to be your ONLY PC. No floppy. No CD. No DVD. No serial (I got an external USB-to-DB9 adapter since serial consoles are a big part of my job). No parallel. No big freaky docking station jack. Instead, when I'm on the road, I have a Kensington wireless/optical/travel mouse. When I'm at the office, I plug into power and a USB hub that connects me to my iPaq cradle, scanner, external CD drive, and a wired optical mouse. When I'm at home, I'm wireless to my home PC-- that does all my DVD playing, CD writing, and floppy reading for me.
Do I use the writable screen? Heck yeah. There are a lot of times it's easier to email a hand-sketch than do ASCII art or a five paragraph description. A picture's worth a thousand words, etc. Plus, when your lap's just not available, the tablet form factor is a touch of genius. I've passed it around in a meeting when I wanted to be able to update a worksheet on the fly. I'll flip the monitor around backward to show the person opposite me what I'm working on. Have I eliminated the tree-killing scourge of paper from my life? I'd recommend "The Myth of the Paperless Office" if you think it could.
So, if I had to have just one computer... this couldn't be it. But if you're a geek like me, and you're looking for a laptop to be king among your gadgets, toys, and existing computer menagerie, this is your baby.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (1.33-GHZ Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)
Blending the functionality of today's top notebooks with the convenience of pen-based input, Toshiba's Portégé 3500 Tablet PC delivers a possible glimpse into the future of mobile computers. Versatile and extremely compact but not particularly powerful when compared to standard portables, the Portégé 3500 is a great fit for those who are handier with a pen than a keyboard and value a truly petite profile.
The unit is most at home when used to enter, store and share notes and concepts that might otherwise be kept in handwritten format. In fact, measuring just 11.6 by 9.2 by 1.2 inches and tipping the scales at a scant 4.1 pounds, the Portégé 3500 is as comfortably portable as a conventional paper-based notepad. Users input data in one of two ways--either by sketching directly on the swiveling, double-duty 12.1-inch poly-silicon TFT color LCD (maximum resolution 1024x768) or via an 84-key keyboard.
Though the Portégé 3500 is not as powerful as a comparably priced notebook, it is faster than many competing tablets. Featuring a 1.33 GHz Intel Pentium III processor-M with enhanced SpeedStep technology for improved battery life, 256 MB SDRAM memory (expandable to a whopping 1024 MB), and a Trident CyberALLADIN-T graphics controller with 16 MB external memory, the unit will easily handle most day-to-day mobile computing tasks and many 3-D apps too. Serious gamers or 3-D artisans should look elsewhere.
Connectivity amenities include an RJ-45 LAN port for network and online access, an RJ-11 modem port for low-speed e-communication, and integrated Wi-Fi compliant wireless LAN support. The system also sports a surprisingly large 40 GB hard disk and facilities for an external CD and/or DVD drive, a pair of ultra-fast USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals, an integrated TouchPad, 12 function keys, a speaker and microphone and full 16-bit stereo sound. Battery life is estimated at 3.5 hours under ideal conditions.
0 comments:
Post a Comment